Conti to advance digital technologies with new facility in Portugal

Hanover, Germany – Continental AG has officially opened a new ‘solution centre’ in Lousado, Portugal to advance the digitalisation of tire technologies.

Officially inaugurated 20 April, the unit is located near Continental’s tire production facility, said the German group in a statement.

The facility hosts cross-functional teams that will drive forward “targeted digitalisation topics,” according to Continental.

Key areas, it said, include: IT; artificial intelligence (AI) and applied analytics; e-commerce; and industrial engineering.

The teams have been tasked to provide global support for the digitalisation of tire solutions, production processes and business workflows across Continental Tires.

The unit currently employs 80 IT specialist and is set to double the number of its recruits by 2026 – targeting nearby universities of Porto and Braga.

“We are working systematically on digital tire solutions, e-commerce and Industry 4.0 applications,” said Christian Kötz, head of Continental Tires.

At the Lousado site, he added, the team will work on new digital-business models and the tire maker’s “ecosystem of digital solutions for premium tires.”

The Portuguese centre was recently part of a tire quality control project involving staff from Lousado and the applied analytics & AI team in Hanover.

They jointly investigated ways of using AI in final inspections on tires: detecting non-compliances that are difficult to see with the naked eye.

The AI-assisted tire quality control is now set to be used also at other tire factories operated by the group, noted Continental.

Another team from Lousado is supporting the development of new digital fleet solutions and refining the existing ones.

These include the ContiConnect tire management system, which offers digitally assisted tire monitoring.

Continental manufactures passenger cars, agricultural machinery and off-road tires at the Lousado plant.